Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A published letter on a subject of general interest, addressed to a person but intended for general readership.
Wiktionary
- n. A letter addressed to one person but published (as for example in a newspaper) for the public to read.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a letter of protest; addressed to one person but intended for the general public
Examples
“(London, 1908); Father Tyrell's Modernism: an expository criticism of "Through Scylla and Charybdis" in an open letter to Mr. Athelstan”
“Besides his great work, Irenaeus wrote an open letter to the Roman priest Florinus, who thought of joining the Valentinians; and when the unfortunate priest had apostatized, and had become a Gnostic,”
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI
“That also happened to be the day Rudd issued his open letter in response to Kirk's speech about the "nihilism" of "growing numbers" of youth and the generation gap, in which he had called the Vietnam War "a well-meant but essentially fruitless effort.”
“At his desk Dr Iannis read once more the famous open letter to Hitler that Vlakhos had published in the Kathimerini.”
“Humour doesn't bubble much now on this side the world, for the censor had forbidden the publication of this open letter lest it should possibly cause American-German trouble!”
“Not content with this letter of recommendation which she gave to Smith to deliver, Madame Riccoboni at the same time sent Garrick another through the post, and shows the sincerity of the feelings of high esteem she had expressed in the open letter by expressing them again quite as decisively in the closed one: ” 6 Octobre.”
“Baudin's gratitude for King's hospitality was expressed in a cordial personal letter, and also in an open letter which he addressed to the Governors of the French colonies of Ile-de-France and Reunion.”
“[HILMAR comes in hurriedly and agitatedly from the right, with an open letter in his hand.]”
“Kuroh and Modzelewski signed their open letter and next to their signatures stated that they expected to receive three years in prison for this act.”
“After the Coup d'Etat, 2 Dec., 1851 in an open letter to the "Univers", he invited the Catholics to rally to”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘open letter’.
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HIST - 56 was 56 years ago
A modest contribution to the commemoration of the Hungarian Uprising against Soviet rule during the fall of 1956. As this is an English language lexicography site, I refrained from listing people's...
Stalinization, freedom fighter, de-Stalinization, socialist economy, army tank, Trotskyist, student union, Molotov cocktail, political prisoner, army unit, collective farm, set ablaze and 109 more...
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Open and Shut
open, shut, open and shut, can opener, shut up, shutter, opening, shut-in, open door, open sesame, open-and-shut, shutoff and 47 more...
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Take a Letter, Maria
Types of letters and correspondence
epistle, open letter, letter to the editor, business letter, cover letter, love letter, mash note, valentine, billet-doux, billet, brevet, memo and 25 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for open letter.
chained_bear Upon reflection, it seems odd to me that we call these things "open letters" when they're really more like announcements or editorials.
Anyway... Here are some really good ones, to "people or entities who are unlikely to respond." Aug 29, 2008